I bought a 2001 Acura TL from them back in 2004. It wasn't a great experience but not too bad either. Went there 2 years ago to change the tranny under warranty and the whole experience was great (Jerry was the service advisor). I usually take my cars to Goodyear Gemini for state inspections and oil changes and to Koons Honda in Manassas for more serious issues. 3 weeks ago I had the 105k major service done at Koons (timing belts, water pump, side engine mount) mainly because of the price $1000 vs $1700 at Pohanka. They did a very good job and was told that the car is in great shape and there's nothing else that needs to be replaced. Couple of weeks later, the state inspection is due and since Pohanka is 2 minutes up the road and I just received a Free State Inspection coupon from them, I went there to do it. BAD IDEA! Dropped the car for state inspection and a brake fluid flush around 9 AM, I get a call from Tom Smith the service advisor around noon. He tells me the car failed inspection and I will have to replace the front engine mount (says it's leaking hydraulic oil?!? but i don't see any oil spots under the car) and lower ball joints to pass inspection. The cost to fix all this at Pohanka? about $950 before taxes and shop fees. Whole thing smelled fishy since I didn't notice anything abnormal vibrations when accelerating hard or any noise from the ball joints, plus the car had just been inspected 3 weeks ago at Honda. So I tell him I decline the repairs and I start calling around for some quotes. First call to Goodyear Gemini in Centreville, service advisor says "I won't call names but there's a lot of Acura's coming in that failed inspection at certain dealership in the area because of lower ball joints and when they come here for a quote we find no problems with them and cars pass inspection without any need for repairs."!!! Go figure...how many Acura dealerships are close by? Just Pohanka. So being on the way home, I stopped by NTB in Chantilly for a quote, they inspected the car for about 15 minutes and then told me there's nothing wrong with the front engine mount or the lower ball joints. They see no need to replace them!!! Unfortunately they don't do state inspections but can pretty much guarantee it will pass. They suggest to remove the rejection sticker and take it to a different station for inspection. So I take their advice, stop by my house to take down the sticker and drive straight to Goodyear Gemini in Centreville. One hour and $16 later the car passed state inspection. Lesson learned: a free state inspection at Pohanka Acura will cost you $1000!!!

wow thanks for the feedback. Thats bad coming from Acura, very bad

forward this to ACS

Damn... that's sketchy business right there, glad you didn't get scammed.

Write to Acura HQ and to the state about this

definately let acura corporate know so others do not get scammed. Post your complaint on the dealerraters website.

I did post this on dealerrater.com and edmunds.com so other people don't get scammed. By the way, there's 4 more complaints about the same type of scam at Pohanka Acura on dealerrater.com. I thought about filing a complaint with the state but it's probably not worth the time. I didn't think about complaining to ACS but I don't see what good can come out of it. My goal is to warn others about this so they don't get ripped off.

My ex had a similar problem with them back in '05 when her '03 MDX (under warranty) had it's VSA light came on for no reason. We went down there bc they were close. They gave some song and dance, said it was something minor, gave us a loaner car, and told us to come back tomorrow. Two days after we picked it up the light came on again. "Gee, they said, it must be something else." So they gave us a loaner car, and said come back tomorrow. We came back, dropped off the loaner, and proceeded home. 10 min away from home the VSA light came back on. So I pulled a U-Turn on FFCP (across the road, not in the opposite direction) and drove back there. "What? It came back on? Gee..." I told them either they fix it or I call the State licensing board. And, for S&G, have a tech come out and we will both look at it. Sure enough a tech came out, a very nice guy, who checked the codes, looked at the paper work and said it was some unit and it would have to be replaced. This would entail the steering column being taken out to repair it. He also said something along the lines of "How the F could they have missed this? Where we even looking?" So they fixed the problem under warranty, we got it back, and haven't had a problem ever since.

The moral of the story: When a business dicks you around, mention that you will contact your state's licensing board (in VA it's the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation or DPOR) and they will change their tune. If it is after the fact, contact the licensing board and register a complaint with them. Posting on DealerRater is helpful and they may lose a few customers, but if they lose their license then they lose all their customers. This is why I never go to the dealership- Tim at Ray Lakes for parts and a local mechanic for the heavy work.

If no one complains, they are never going to stop. It'll take a few minutes of your time to do this.

I'm kinda shocked, they've usually been pretty good. My girls cousin is a master mechanic there...

Tired of them mofos too. Hope everything works out for you.

They didn't want to give me a "free will" I told them to check my transmission because it was beginning to slip....had to wait until it went out then got owned.

They have been doing that for years...from what I've heard. Always helps get a second opinion when it comes to stealership.

Wow you guy have to do that for state inspection. I think if I live there I would definitely fail state inspection. Lucky here in GA we only have state emission an that is easy to pass or easy to cheap emission test

^ In VA state inspection is once a year and emission every 2 years.

no emission testing for the county I live in NC

^no inspection, emissions or anything here..

we just pay crooked inspection people to slap stickers on the car if we know we cant pass.. there around every corner lol.

The front engine mount works with air vacuum, not hydraulic oil!

I have been doing this for the last 4+ year on my TL

Karen Radley Acura in Woodbridge FTW.

^^^ Shoulda went to Radley, Rosenthal in Rockville, Criswell in Annapolis, or Tischer in Laurel. Theres like 5 Acura dealerships in a 40 miles radius to NoVA. Thats pretty gay of Pohanka

Miss the VET?

Not to say they arent bad but its highly possible your front mount is bad (easy to miss especially for a shop that doesnt know what to look for or how to test) If they are original and or you have more than 50k miles odds are it is shot

Actually it does have oil

^ otherwise, how would you inspect for leaking.......air

not at all, lol...it was total BS anyways. I remember buying a brand new car back in 00 and they sent me VET testing papers in the mail about 2 months later

OP, report these a-holes to Acura corp. Make sure you mention the other 4 complaints on dealerrater.com too. They'll probably clean house if they have to.

Definitely write Acura Customer Service - I did, and they made things right. Here's a paragraph from my letter to ACS with the two issues:
A month later, four calls and a couple of emails later, the issue was still not resolved, so I sent a letter to ACS. They really made the dealer take notice. A few days later, I had my money back and they replaced the center cap at no charge.

Truth is, Pohanka offers the best service compared to Karen Radley in Woodbrige and Radley in Alexandria. After this incident was rectified, I've taken my car back there twice for scheduled maintenance. The first time back they said I had a leak in my axle. I smelled BS and declined the fix. The second time I asked them to check out the axle for leaks and they said it looked fine.

Definitely not the best of the best, but Karen Radley has ignored me every time I've gone there and they act like I don't exist - Radley in Alexandria (where I've bought both cars) is just a disorganized mess and they scratched my CL-S back when I had it.